Recorded at the same time (July 1972) at the same studio (Bavaria Studios, Munich) as Amon Düül II`s well known and of their best efforts 'Wolf City', Utopia was a common project by Amon Düül II producer and musician Olaf Kübler (saxophone, moog) and Düül bass player Lothar Meid. Using the synergy of the parallel sessions with the Wolf City recordings, Olaf Kübler appreciated Düüls singer Renate Knaup-Krötenschwanz as singer of 2 of the album tracks and Düül heads Weinzierl and Karrer on guitar and violin. There is also a different version of Deutsch-Nepal on the album. As Olaf Kübler reminds Deutsch-Nepal was originally planned to record only for the Utopia album. Musically Utopia has a lot in common with the Düül records 'Wolf City' and 'Viva la Trance' and slightly early Passport and Embryo influences. It's a very worthy and satisfying record with a hypnotic charisma. Originally released in December 1973. Remastered from original master tape and with a true and honest making of story. A masterpiece.
Track by track review:
The first track 'What You Gonna Do' is a straight-ahead rocker with Renate Knaup singing with her nice and distinctive noise. 'Wolf-Man Jack Show' is a weird song, with Jimmy Jackson at the mysterious 'Choir Organ' (giving off a stranger sound than Mellotron choirs), which he actually utilised on many tracks to good effect. The bass riff here is almost snatched straight from THE BEATLES ' Come Together' played German style. One of the albums highlights. 'Alice' is a sweet love song. The tune itself is care-free and up-lifting and has Lothar playing Mellotron flutes. It reminded of Kevin Ayers. 'Las Vegas' is a hippy-sounding jam with congas, jazzy sax playing and a nose-flute.'Deutsch-Nepal' is a remake of the song of the same name of 'Wolf City'. It's heavy sound and strange vocal from guest Rolf Zacher makes it an excellent example of Krautrock. 'Utopia No. 1' is another hippy jam but features those searing organs from Jimmy Jackson and Falk Rogner too, Olaf Kübler toying around with a Moog Synth and bizarre echoed vocals from Meid. Very lovely stuff. 'Nasi Goreng' is a Hammond-heavy instrumental with strong melodies and light oriental moments. It reminds a lot to Viva la Trance 'Im Krater blühen die Bäume'. 'Jazz-Kiste': probably the master-piece composition of the album starring PASSPORT's Christian Schulze on electric-piano and Embryo's Edgar Hofmann playing amazing 'wah-wah' soprano sax almost troughout.